The Indian Women’s Hockey team will start their FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup 2022 campaign from 1st July in Spain and the Netherlands. The Indian women’s team will start their campaign against England on July 3rd followed by their match against China on 5th July and lastly against New Zealand on 7th July.
The Indian Eves are ready suggests halfback Sushila Chanu who has been a sensation for the Indian team at the Tokyo Olympics and remains to be a very vital cog in this lineup. “It does not matter against which opponents we start our campaign. We are not afraid of which team we are facing first as our mentality and our mindset is to take each game as it comes and try and win every match,” Sushila Chanu said in a virtual press conference.
Sushila Chanu highlighted how India is in good stead among these nations as they have matches scheduled against them ahead of the world cup and will be well prepared to take them down when the big stage arrives.
We have faced China recently in Muscat, Oman, in the Women’s Hockey Asia Cup 2022, and in the FIH Hockey Pro League 2021/22. And so it will be an advantage for us. We will be playing the FIH Hockey Pro League 2021/22 matches against England next month. We had last played New Zealand in 2020. So we know about all these teams quite well and we know how we have to prepare for the upcoming challenges,” Sushila Chanu added.
India faced Spain in Bhubaneshwar over a two-legged affair and won both matches. The Indian Eves bagged a 2-1 win in their first encounter and they managed a 4-3 win in their second clash. Indian forward Navneet Kaur spoke on how the Indian team have faced high qulaity opponents in the last couple of years hence playing against any country is not a matter of pressure. She backs her team to bounce back in the game even if they are a goal or two down.
“Around 2-3 years ago, there used to be a concern in the team before facing stronger opponents. But now, there is no fear in our team and we feel we are ready to face every challenge. Even if an opponent scores the first goal, we know we have the capability and skills to get things back in our favour,” Navneet said.
India will next play a double-header against Germany in FIH Hockey Pro League 2021/22 on March (12th and 13th).
